In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
Parallel translations
- WEB Meanwhile, when a multitude of many thousands had gathered together, so much so that they trampled on each other, he began to tell his disciples first of all, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
- BSB In the meantime, a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling one another. Jesus began to speak first to His disciples: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
- NKJV In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
- NASB Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
- NLT Meanwhile, the crowds grew until thousands were milling about and stepping on each other. Jesus turned first to his disciples and warned them, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—their hypocrisy.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Amid a vast crowd, Jesus warns His disciples first to beware the 'yeast of the Pharisees,' which He identifies as hypocrisy. Inward sincerity before God matters more than outward show.
Overview
Like leaven that quietly permeates dough, hypocrisy spreads pervasively and corrupts. Jesus warns His followers against the religious pretense that He has just denounced in the Pharisees, urging genuineness instead of performance. True discipleship flows from a heart transformed by grace, not from outward conformity that masks an unchanged inner life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- 1 Pet 2:1Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
- 1 Cor 5:7–8Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
- Jas 3:17But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
- Matt 16:6–12Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
- 1 Cor 15:3For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
- Mark 8:15–21And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
- Luke 12:56Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?
- Job 27:8For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?
- Job 20:5That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
- 2 Kgs 7:17And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him.
- Luke 11:44Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.
- Acts 21:20And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
- Luke 6:17And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases;
- Job 36:13But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them.
- Luke 5:15But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.
- Luke 5:1And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret,
- Isa 33:14The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 12:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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